National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

NAPM calls for time-bound and planned phaseout of nuclear fission energy globally and in India

26^th April, 2026: As the world remembers the 40^th year of Chernobyl disaster today; one of the worst technological catastrophes in human history; National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) re-affirms its commitment to strive for a nuclear-free world. History has taught us very costly lessons through Chernobyl, Fukushima, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and we must collectively ensure that humanity is not threatened and decimated by the nuclear-industrial-military complex of nation-states. We call for a time-bound, planned and full phaseout of nuclear fission energy globally and in India and a pro-active investment by nations and corporations in non-displacing and ecologically safe energy alternatives.

As is known, exactly four decades ago, on 26^th April, 1986, the explosion at Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the then Soviet Union (now Ukraine) unleashed what now remains, one of the worst nuclear disasters in human history.  Notably, this was not an isolated accident, but was preceded by the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, and decades later followed by the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011 – together forming a grim pattern that exposes the inherent risks of nuclear fission technology. Forty years on, far from being a ’closed chapter’; Chernobyl stands as an ongoing catastrophe – ecological, human, and moral.

The explosion and subsequent fire released massive quantities of radioactive material into the atmosphere, contaminating large parts of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, large parts of Europe and even beyond. Many millions of people were exposed to high levels of ionizing radiation.  Even today, over five million (50 lakhs) people live in contaminated regions.  Entire communities were uprooted – over 3,50,000 people were forcibly displaced, often permanently, with deep psychological and social trauma.  These are not just statistics. They represent fractured lives, lost homes, and inter-generational dislocation and devastation.

Profound Public Health, Environmental and Economic Costs and Impacts:

The human health consequences remain deeply contested, but that itself is part of the problem.  Official estimates suggest that fewer than 50 deaths were directly attributable in the immediate aftermath, with projections of up to 4,000 eventual cancer deaths among the most exposed populations.  Yet, such figures obscure the broader and harder-to-measure burden of disease: thyroid cancers in children, long-term radiation illnesses, psychological trauma, and chronic health insecurity.  Thousands of children developed thyroid cancer due to radioactive iodine exposure, particularly through contaminated milk.  The accident also triggered widespread anxiety, depression, and stigma; which even international agencies acknowledge as one of the ‘largest public health consequences’ of the disaster.

It is important to approach the disaster from a long term, human-safety-first perspective, instead of reducing the toll of Chernobyl to narrow epidemiological counts.  Radiation exposure operates across decades, across generations, and often below the threshold of easy attribution. The uncertainty itself is a form of perpetual harm for communities; living under a cloud of invisible risk, never fully sure of their health – immediate or long term, safety of their land, or their future.

Environmentally, the damage remains profound and long-lasting. Vast areas were rendered uninhabitable, leading to the creation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Radioactive isotopes such as Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 continue to persist in soils and ecosystems, with half-lives measured in decades. Forests, rivers, and agricultural lands were contaminated, and the burden of monitoring and managing these landscapes continues indefinitely. Even today, the damaged reactor site still requires complex containment structures, and the long-term management of radioactive debris remains unresolved.

The economic implications of the disaster have also been staggering.  The former Soviet Union (and later Ukraine) Belarus, and Russia spent hundreds of billions of dollars on evacuation, compensation, cleanup, and containment. These costs persist across generations, draining public resources that could otherwise support health, education, and sustainable development.

Nuclear disasters are not one-time events; they are perpetual liabilities:

Chernobyl also exposes a deeper, systemic failure: the problem of nuclear waste. Even under normal operation, nuclear reactors produce highly radioactive waste that remains dangerous for thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. There is still no universally accepted, safe, long-term solution for its disposal.  At Chernobyl, the situation is even more precarious. Tons of radioactive material remain entombed in unstable structures, requiring continuous oversight and future intervention. The idea that humanity can ‘safely’ manage such materials over geological timescales is, at best, an unproven assumption and at worst, a dangerous gamble.

When viewed alongside Three Mile Island and Fukushima, a pattern emerges: complex systems fail, human error is inevitable, natural disasters occur, and when nuclear systems fail, the consequences are catastrophic, long-lasting, and transboundary. Fukushima, decades after Chernobyl, demonstrated that even technologically-advanced societies are not immune to nuclear disasters that have grave consequences.

Nuclear Is Not ‘Climate-Friendly’: Invest in Non-Displacing, Ecologically Safer Renewables:

Proponents of nuclear energy often argue that such accidents are rare, and that nuclear power is ‘necessary’ to combat climate change. But this argument ignores both the scale of potential harm and the rapid evolution of safer alternatives. Today, renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and storage technologies are not only safer but increasingly cheaper and faster to deploy. They do not carry the risk of rendering entire regions uninhabitable, nor do they generate waste that must be managed for millennia.

Chernobyl stands as a warning across generations. Some technologies are too dangerous, too unforgiving of error, and too costly in their consequences to justify their continued expansion.  Forty years later, the disaster is not over. It lives on in contaminated lands, in damaged bodies, in displaced communities, and in the unresolved burden of nuclear waste.

From a no-nuclear-risk standpoint, the lesson is clear. The continued expansion of nuclear fission-based power infrastructure is an unacceptably high risk. Humanity now has the knowledge and the alternatives to choose a different path – one that prioritizes safety, sustainability, and justice.

Chernobyl must not be remembered merely as history. It must be heeded as a warning to humanity – not to meddle in risky games that we can’t control and that can jeopardize humanity in its entirety.

On this solemn day, NAPM demands that:

• The Government of India imposes an immediate moratorium on building and commissioning any more nuclear fission-based power plants anywhere in India.
• The newly passed ‘SHANTI Act’ (Sustainable Harvesting and Advancement of Nuclear energy for Transforming India Act 2026), be comprehensively reviewed and drastically amended in the light of the massive dangers of internal nuclear proliferation;
• The International and National Financial institutions must stop financing any nuclear power ventures, disregarding adverse social, environmental and economic costs.
• UN-General Assembly must issue an urgent global call to stop any new nuclear fission-based energy infrastructure, considering the deep and intimate connections between nuclear fission energy and nuclear weapons.
• All Political Parties in India, institutional bureaucracy and the higher judiciary, must understand the grave implications of nuclear energy and ensure law, public policy and jurisprudence do not promote nuclear technology that would imperil the environment and communities over generations.
• Government of India and all state governments must promote and invest in decentralized, non-displacing and ecologically safer forms of renewable energy.

Issued by: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

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